Two former Parramatta Eels players are accused of harbouring semi-automatic weapons and possessing more than half-a-million dollars in cash after dramatic arrests in Sydney's Centennial Park yesterday.

A former US news anchor who became the face of gun control after his journalist girlfriend was shot dead during a live broadcast in 2015 has defeated an NRA-endorsed incumbent for a seat in the Virginia statehouse.

The gunman who opened fire in a small Texas church, killing 26 people during worship services, sent threatening text messages to his mother-in-law before the attack which appeared to stem from a domestic situation.

The US gun lobby, which has seldom embraced new firearms-control measures, has voiced a readiness to restrict a rifle accessory that enabled a Las Vegas gunman to strafe a crowd with bursts of sustained fire as if from an automatic weapon.